Chapter 100: Children Playing Ball

But if someone had done all this... then where had the people originally in the manor gone?

Thinking this, Natsuki Subaru turned his gaze to the nearest hallway window.

Looking at that window shrouded by a black curtain, an urge to pull it open rose in his heart.

He had to at least take a look at what abnormal change had befallen the outside world.

Still, Natsuki Subaru kept up the most basic caution, pinching only a corner of the curtain's edge and drawing it open bit by bit with the faintest of movements.

Yet the moment he finished the act of pulling the curtain, before he even had the chance to glimpse the scene outside—

he suddenly noticed that the once empty, dead-silent hallway, as if someone had pressed a kind of volume switch, abruptly erupted with a clamor of lively, bustling sound.

The crisp chirping of birds in the trees outside, the rustling of the flowers and grass in the courtyard swaying ceaselessly in the wind, the chorus of countless insects woven together...

Natsuki Subaru felt the world around him suddenly come 'alive.'

At some point he couldn't pinpoint, the sound of a group of children laughing and roughhousing even rose by his ear, seemingly not far from where he stood.

The hand Natsuki Subaru had been using to draw back the black curtain came to a sudden halt.

Wait—what had he just heard? Children... the sound of children at play?

And the voices were so familiar, a bit like that pack of little brats from the village outside the manor.

How could those little rascals from the village have shown up inside the manor?

Natsuki Subaru felt a flicker of confusion, but then he remembered that, before he'd fallen unconscious, he had told Ram to stop the villagers from coming to the manor to take shelter.

Could that be the reason the children were able to play out in the courtyard?

But the sun had already set, and the sky was about to go pitch dark—what were these kids playing so intently?

This time Natsuki Subaru smoothly pulled the curtain open by a small corner, finally getting to see the scene out in the courtyard.

The sun had long since set, the stars and moon had appeared ahead of schedule, and the sky was about to plunge into total darkness.

Even so, five or six children on the courtyard lawn had still gathered into a ring, playing a game of kickball.

"Hahaha..."

Standing directly opposite Natsuki Subaru, Petra let out a happy laugh like a silver bell, mingling with the laughter of the other little companions around her.

Seeing these little brats so relaxed sets me at ease—the crisis should already be over, right?

A smile tugged at the corner of Natsuki Subaru's mouth as well, and the hand pinching the curtain was about to drop, ready to head out the front door and ask them what had happened.

Yet in the instant before he let go, on a sudden whim he thought of the ball Petra and the others had been kicking all this time.

Come to think of it, did this other world even have such a thing as a soccer ball? It seemed unlikely, but he still wanted to confirm.

Thinking this, Natsuki Subaru, still wearing his smile, looked toward the "ball" the ring of children was kicking.

It rolled with a series of bumps and knocks across the grass, the liquid it spilled gradually dyeing the lawn red.

Natsuki Subaru's smile froze on his face, his once crinkled, smiling eyes snapping wide open in an instant.

Looking closely, what that ring of children was kicking back and forth was no plaything ball at all, but the bloody head of a small black dog.

There were clear tearing marks at the black dog's neck, as if some being had wrenched the head off by brute force.

At the sight, Natsuki Subaru was instantly seized by horror, a chill welling up from the bottom of his heart.

This little black dog was something he knew all too well—the signature scar on the crown of its head let him recognize its identity in an instant.

It was none other than Meili's mabeast companion—Guiltilaw.

It could shift from a colossal mabeast, disguising its bulk into a harmless puppy, and had killed him many times back during the manor days—difficult to forget even if he tried.

Only—the scene before him was simply too uncanny.

These children had slaughtered Meili's mabeast companion?

Thinking this, Natsuki Subaru quickly shook his head.

No... the few people before his eyes were, in all likelihood, no longer the innocent, mischievous children he had once known.

Now there were countless questions in his mind awaiting answers.

For instance, how had Guiltilaw—a mabeast—died, and why, even after death, had it not reverted to its original body?

It was just as if... it had been suppressed by some more powerful force, so that even its corpse couldn't return to its original form.

And the source of this force needed no spelling out—it was, without a doubt, that ring of "children."

Besides, where had Meili gone? Even her mabeast companion had been reduced to this wretched state, so she...

Natsuki Subaru stared blankly, lost in thought.

And it was right then that his heart gave a violent lurch, and he hurriedly snapped back to his senses, only to realize that, faced with such an uncanny situation, he hadn't immediately let go of the hand holding the curtain.

But to let go now... well, it seemed it was a little too late.

Out of the corner of his eye, Natsuki Subaru caught sight of the children who had been kicking Guiltilaw's head—at some unknown point they had stopped moving, and the unbroken laughter by his ear had vanished too, the surroundings returning to their original deathly stillness.

Faced with this anomaly, Natsuki Subaru didn't hesitate in the slightest, whisking the black curtain—lifted by only a small corner—back down.

Yet, before he dropped the curtain, he inevitably still glimpsed the appearance of that group of children across the way.

No different from normal—except that, for some reason, they had sensed his gaze, and so the five or six children whipped around in unison to look in his direction.

Their faces were as stiff as those of newborn infants, their expression management somewhat out of control, giving off an intensely incongruous, eerie feeling.

Only Petra was the exception. As if nothing were amiss, she had already picked up the black dog's head from the ground and cradled it in her arms.

In that instant, after her eyes met Natsuki Subaru's, she gave a charming smile just like always, then parted her lips and mouthed something.

Unfortunately, Natsuki Subaru dropped the black curtain before she could finish the motion, sealing this group of uncanny children outside the window.

As for what "Petra" had said, Natsuki Subaru hadn't managed to make it out at all.

Without the slightest hesitation, Natsuki Subaru swiftly moved away from that hallway window, striding briskly toward the first-floor hall.

"Was that Petra? No... this uncanny state—it's just like her body's been possessed by a monster."

This time Natsuki Subaru understood what those wooden boards on the second floor had been guarding against.

Only, the truly absurd thing was that the first floor, the easiest to enter, had no protection whatsoever.

He had just now been detected by that group of monsters disguised as children again.

"So, I have to get out of the hallway fast, and head to the first-floor hall first to see if I can find any clues."

Natsuki Subaru made up his mind, but he still couldn't help instinctively glancing back again and again, confirming that those monsters weren't smashing straight through the window to chase him down.

Thankfully, there wasn't any movement.

The heavy black curtain hung silently before that hallway window, like a steadfast, unwavering guard.

A sense of safety, oddly enough, welled up in Natsuki Subaru's heart.

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